With the advent of the machine described in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,661,333, it became possible to reduce entire trees with attached limbs and branches to chips which were useful in a number of industries including the paper-making industry. Such machinery has typically been used in harvesting operations wherein forest or tree plantations were thinned by removing those trees which were ready for harvesting and leaving other trees which would continue their growth.
Machinery of the character to be described is typically useful, in view of its smaller size, to be towed to various locations in the forest where it can process timber and other products which otherwise would be left to rot on the forest floor and wasted. This machine is particularly suited to processing trees with crooked trunks and limbs and bushy, hard to handle, hardwood trees which are of a very "limby" nature. The chips which are harvested can be burned to provide a valuable "energy" resource and are also useful in industries such as the paper-making industry.